This invention relates generally to social networking systems and in particular to presenting actions or objects to a user providing content to a social networking system.
Social networking systems allow their users to efficiently communicate information with each other to encourage interactions between users. Social networking systems allow users to share content with each other, to create and maintain events for users to meet in person, to establish connections with other users, or to perform other interactions with each other. To encourage user interactions, social networking systems strive to streamline interactions between the user and the social networking system. For example, a social networking system provides its users with interfaces that seek to reduce the number of clicks to reach a page, to reduce the number of characters a user inputs to provide content to the social networking system, and to reduce clutter when presenting content to users. Simplifying user interactions with the social networking system increases the likelihood that users continue using a social networking system.
However, users increasingly access social networking systems, and other systems, through mobile devices. Many mobile devices are configured to receive user input using methods different from traditional user input methods, such as keyboard and mice. This use of different input methods limits the effectiveness of conventional techniques for simplifying user interaction with a social networking system. For example, conventional social networking systems lack the capability for effectively reducing the number of inputs (e.g., number of button presses or strokes) necessary for users to enter words or phrases for communication to the social networking system. Conventionally-used predictive text capabilities do not account for user-specific information, so they often do not suggest relevant words until after a user has entered a number of characters.